Saturday, May 6, 2017

Reading Mark Mendiola's Article, Who's Winning the Culture War?

The second issue of LCG's recruitment magazine, Tomorrow's World (July-September 1999), featured an article by Mark Mendiola entitled "Who's Winning the Culture War?" (pp. 24-28.) This was the second of several articles Mendiola would write for this recruitment magazine. Here political contentions are viewed in a religious manner. Those opinions of which Mendiola approves of are presented as standards set by LCG's God while those which he disagree with are vilified as the opinions of secularists who are possibly influenced by Satan.

Let's take a look at the article.

This massive conflict pits
those striving to maintain traditional
religious values against
secularists who reject any public
place for God—especially a God
Who requires obedience to standards
of human conduct. The
conflict is keenly felt over such
hot-button issues as abortion,
homosexuality and euthanasia,
but the war extends far beyond
those flashpoints.

He says the culture war is not going well for his side.

The horrifying Columbine High School shootings
in Littleton, Colorado and the tepid response to scandals surrounding President Clinton leave many
Americans wondering whether the culture war’s tide
hasn’t turned dramatically. Many observe that our
society dishonors or even mocks those intent on preserving
the fundamental values that have helped
carry the nation though its most difficult periods for
more than 220 years.

He then condemns the entertainment industry.

Perhaps nowhere is the culture war more evident
than in the entertainment industry. This “industry”
programs gruesome video games full of senseless and
violent killings. It creates rock, rap and even country
music that glamorizes illicit sex. It produces movie
after movie mocking and undermining traditional
values. Americans shockingly spend more than $8
billion a year on pornography, making the raunchy
porn industry one of the most profitable businesses
in the United States!

He complains that "even country music ... glamorizes illicit sex." Is his apparent attachment to country music an indication of his background?

He condemns television networks.

United States television networks ... export for worldwide consumption banal situation
comedies, outrageous talk shows and movies
filled with sex and violence...

He insists that the religious views of the Founding Fathers are being maliciously suppressed by revisionist historians.

In her 1991 book The
Rewriting of America’s History,
Catherine Millard states that
revisionist historians relegate to
mere footnotes—or omit altogether—any
references to religious
influences that forged the
nation’s character and destiny.
Such matters are deemed politically incorrect and
socially unacceptable.

If that is really the problem then perhaps he should encourage people to read widely. But the real purpose of this recruitment magazine is to get people to join LCG.

He denounces secularists for causing a monument of the Ten Commandments to be removed in Alabama.

A century ago,
who would have predicted that a jurist would be prohibited
from displaying the Ten Commandments in
his courtroom? Yet Alabama judge Roy Moore has
incurred the secularists’ wrath by doing so.

Roy Moore is now running to be a senator for Alabama.

He then cites the Mayflower Compact of 1620, the Declaration of Independence, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and a ruling of the Supreme Court in 1892 to note the important role of Christianity in the United States to condemn these secularists.

He also mentions the sacrifices of those American founders who fought for freedom from the British.

Those 56 colonists were willing
to stand up and lose everything—they were willing to
die for their convictions.
Indeed, by signing the Declaration of Independence
they were signing their own death warrants
and declaring their dependence on Almighty God.
The Declaration’s closing words solemnly declare:
“With a firm reliance on the protection of Divine
Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our
lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.” Of the 56,
five were captured
by the British and tortured
before they died; 12
had their homes sacked,
looted, occupied by
British troops or burned.
Two lost their sons in the
army. One had two sons
captured. Nine of them
died in the war. Against
tremendous odds, they
and many other Americans
were willing to lay down their lives in defense
of their cherished values.

Reading that one would never know that LCG forbids its members from serving in the armed forces.

Seventy years later in 1962, the United States
Supreme Court ruled that voluntary prayer could not
be allowed in the nation’s public
schools. The following year,
it ruled that the Bible could not
be read in classrooms, either.
Following those rulings, conditions
took a dramatic turn
for the worse for the United
States. In 1963, a few months
after the ruling against Bible
readings in school, President
John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
The remaining years of
the 1960s also were disastrous
for the United States.

More than 50,000 Americans were slaughtered in
the Vietnam War, the first war conclusively lost by
the United States. Drug abuse, illicit sex and hard
rock music were integral elements of the counterculture
embraced by the younger generation. Destructive
riots and political assassinations wracked the
land. These were the fruits of a generation no longer
exposed to the Bible nor allowed to pray in public
schools!

It is disturbing to see Mendiola imply that the assassination of President Kennedy was somehow connected to the Supreme Court's rulings on this matter. What a strange idea to imply in writing. What a thing to do to use the terrible assassination of President Kennedy to condemn rulings by the Supreme Court. It is sad to see.

He denounces "leftist radicals of the 1960s" who supposedly control the nation and those who opposed the nomination of the late Robert Bork to the Supreme Court.

A key thesis of Robert H. Bork’s 1996 book
Slouching Towards Gomorrah: Modern Liberalism
and American Decline is that the leftist radicals of
the 1960s now control the dominant institutions
setting the nation’s cultural tone, including universities,
churches, the entertainment industry,
print and electronic media and the judiciary. Bork
himself is often seen as a victim of the “culture
war”—nominated to the United States Supreme
Court by President Ronald Reagan, Congress
rejected his nomination as many labeled him “too
conservative.”

He cites the late Paul Weyrich who was a prominent leader of the right. That Mendiola would cite Weyrich reveals the right wing tendencies of LCG's leadership. I do not condemn the COGs for choosing to be right wing but it is important to note that they are right wing because that fact explains so many of their political stances.

Paul Weyrich, president of
the Free Congress Foundation
and the man who coined the
term “moral majority” during
the 1970s, also takes a pessimistic
view of which side is
actually winning the culture
war. In a letter sent to conservative
leaders earlier this year, Weyrich says he no
longer believes a majority of Americans share traditional
values.

Mendiola then says that these problems are all because of Satan.

It generally is not understood there are underlying
evil forces of darkness behind the all-out assault
on the Judeo-Christian culture. These forces are
intent upon snuffing out that beacon of illumination.

... it is Satan who
surcharges the very atmosphere of our society with
attitudes of disobedience, rebellion, lust, anger and
violence so prevalent and amplified in today’s modern
age by the latest in technology via the mass
media. In other words, this diabolical spirit being is
waging war against our very minds!

He scare mongers that Satan is seeking to make society hostile to people like himself and his audience.

Yes, it is a struggle in modern society to control
our thoughts and obey God’s law and the commandments
of Jesus Christ. Satan and his demonic forces
are turning the very society in which we live against
those striving to fight the good fight and defend God’s
way of righteousness.

He then cites Alexis de Tocqueville and Thomas Jefferson. Here is Mendiola's discussion of Jefferson.

Thomas Jefferson, the third president
of the United States and author of the
Declaration of Independence, made
an even more sobering assessment:
“God who gave us life gave us liberty.
Can the liberties of a nation be
secure when we have removed a conviction
that these liberties are the gift
of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect
that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever!”

Jefferson had ideas about the Christian religion that most in the COGs would vehemently deny.

He ends his article with an appeal for action hysterically insisting that "the very survival of Judeo-Christian civilization" is somehow in peril.

The battle lines have been drawn in the culture
war, and the stakes are high. Nothing less than the
very survival of Judeo-Christian civilization hangs in
the balance. No longer is the United States one nation
under God. The United States has squandered its
many God-given blessings, and unless its people
repent, a time of terrible suffering lies ahead ... as the world moves
toward the end of the age. Those who repent may be
spared the suffering, and those whom God calls may
be saved, to rule with Him upon his return, in that
millenial time we call “Tomorrow’s World.” What
about you? Which way will you choose?

And so we see that Mendiola presented himself in this article as quite sympathetic towards the religious right but in fact LCG and the other COGs teach doctrines that are greatly at variance from is taught in most evangelical churches. They denounce the Holy Trinity and instead teach this strange God Family doctrine. They denounce Christians who worship on Sunday as bearing the Mark of the Beast and fated to endure (LCG's) God's wrath shortly before Christ's return. How is it right to present oneself as being like evangelical Christians and presenting sympathetic words to such people while actually working for an organization that denounce evangelical Christians as false Christians?

In September 2006 Mendiola left LCG and joined Dave Pack's Restored Church of God. Around 2008 he left RCG and joined Don Billingsley's Church of God-Faithful Flock.

1 comment:

Mark Mendiola's conclusions are largely based on agenda bias. The fact that he has been a splinter surfer doesn't lend a huge amount of credibility to his opinions. Multiple surfs speak to his capabilities as a discerning leader every bit as much as multiple failed prophecies would tend to do.

If You are new please read this

Hand in Hand for Syria

Keep Somalia's Remittances Open

I encourage readers to sign this petition from Oxfam calling upon the U.S. government to let the Somali diaspora continue to send remittance to their loved ones in Somalia.

Moves have been made to shut down such remittances from Somalis in America. Many Somalis need these remittances. The remittances to Somalia are larger than foreign aid contributions and are a lifeline to these people caught in trouble and turmoil.

It is true that HWA said that some Eastern European states would break away from Moscow's orbit and join the European Empire he said would arise at any moment. But he never talked of the Soviet Union collapsing. He did not teach that. Also he portrayed the rise of the European Empire to be far quicker then what has actually happened. In Mystery of the Ages Christ was supposed to return by 2005 at the most.

So assertions that the fall of the Berlin Wall somehow prove that HWA was right is just complete nonsense spread by people who, for whatever reason, are still in denial that HWA was a false prophet who merely talked out of his own "human reasoning".

Truth about Roderick C. Meredith

What sort of man is he? A man who could say things like this.

"Mr. Armstrong has reminded us again that we are to disfellowship any members who attend GTA's [Garner Ted Armstrong's] campaigns, church services or other meetings. Some of our weaker members apparently do not realize that this man is in direct rebellion against God and His government! We must not allow them, or ourselves, to rationalize about this matter, to try to "help the underdog," or in any other way lend support to one whose gross immorality, whose long standing "play acting" and hypocrisy, and whose direct insubordination to the Government of God has long been and is now a source of confusion and DIVISION among God's people. So, as per Mr. Armstrong's instruction, I charge and exhort every one of you faithful ministers of the living Christ to explain this in no uncertain terms to your members, to warn them about this cause of division and then to disfellowship any who consort with GTA or any of his fellows." (Roderick C. Meredith, Pastor's Report, May 21, 1979, pp. 1-2.)

David Robinson on Roderick C. Meredith

"During the ten years I have been an employee of the Worldwide Church, you have been poorly spoken of by most of the ministers and employees I have known. I vividly remember the absolute unbounded glee that was openly expressed by a good number of respected men in the church when you were first "shanghaied." [In 1972.] I could begin by naming names, which I am sure would shock you. I was one of the few who stood, where possible, for you. Your tenure as superintendent of ministers, as I believe the office was then called, was looked on as nightmarish. While you held office during the years of growth, most of those whom I know gave you very little credit for that growth. Almost everyone whom I know, whether they be former friends of yours, or continuing foes, recalls insensitive and terrible things you have done. Without exception, at least among my acquaintances, they all credit you with an unbridled lust for power and list you as one who is willing to pay the price of gaining that power, no matter what. I have, through many of the last few years, believed you had principles you would not violate. Many a man of experience in the church assured me of my error. Events have proven me wrong and them right. Mr. Armstrong has himself been widely quoted as saying of you that you were so righteous that you were so "righteous you were unrighteous." " (David Robinson, Herbert Armstrong's Tangled Web, Chapter 16, p. 207.)

Of course it is impossible for me to personally verify these assertions but people deserve to know what this knowledgeable man had to say about him.